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Monday, November 28, 2011
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Controversy Surrounds Stop Online Piracy Act as Mark-Up Approaches
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by George H. Pike
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On Oct. 26, 2011, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA; H.R. 3261) was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. A companion bill to the previously introduced PROTECT-IP Act, SOPA would give government officials and content owners new authority to go after "rogue websites" that traffic in infringing, pirated, and counterfeit intellectual property. In the month since the act has been introduced, a groundswell of controversy has enveloped the proposal with competing claims that could lead to a "copyright police state," or that, if it doesn't pass, the "U.S. copyright system will ultimately fail."
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OverDrive Announces Ebook Device 'Test Drive' Program for Libraries
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OverDrive announced Test Drive, a program for libraries to support demonstration and lending of ebook reading devices and tablets to their patrons. The program includes device recommendations and guidelines for setup, maintenance, and support, as well as best practices for institutions that want to stock and lend ebook readers and tablets to patrons. Whether you are considering providing demo units inside or lending devices outside the library, the Test Drive program will provide useful guidelines to work within the framework of your OverDrive ebook lending collection.
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NLM Enhances Drug-Naming Standard for Electronic Health Records
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The RxNorm standard clinical drug vocabulary produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) now contains more accurate and complete connections between National Drug Codes (NDCs) and standard nonproprietary names of medications recommended for use in electronic health records (EHRs). For the first time, it also includes the complete set of NDCs from Thomson Reuters' Red Book, a drug database widely used in the healthcare industry.
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FindLaw Launches Legal Pulse
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FindLaw.com introduced FindLaw Legal Pulse, a new content area that offers continuously updated legal headlines from around the world, along with news, photo feeds, and analysis from such sources as Reuters, the Associated Press, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. The content covers a broad range of law-related topics, everything from Supreme Court decisions to legislative updates, everyday legal issues, and even sports and celebrity news.
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EPUB 3 Becomes Final IDPF Specification—Poised to Unleash an Econtent Revolution
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by Paula J. Hane
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If you think that developments in ebooks and the e-reading experience have been hitting at a fast pace, get ready for it to get really exciting. A new specification has been approved that should accelerate the progress toward richer experiences. On Oct. 11, 2011, at Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany, the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) announced the completion of a major revision to EPUB, which has become the global standard interchange and delivery format for ebooks and other digital publications. The IDPF membership unanimously voted to elevate EPUB 3 to a final IDPF Recommended Specification, which is publicly available at http://idpf.org/epub/30.
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If you regularly read blogs, add these to your reader:
ITI Books Blog – booksblog.infotoday.com – news, observations, and commentary from the authors, editors, and publishers of Information Today, Inc.'s many book offerings.
ITI Conference Blog – libconf.com – covering ITI's library conferences worldwide.
Library Stuff – librarystuff.net – the library blog dedicated to resources for keeping current and professional development, written by Steven M. Cohen.
InfoToday Europe Blog – infotodayeurope.com – The latest news, analysis and opinion on the information industry in Europe and the UK.
Business of Video blog – blog.streamingmedia.com – Daily posts about the online video industry, business trends and analysis, market data, and research as well as the online video business models in the media and entertainment, broadcast, publishing, advertising and enterprise industries.
destinationCRM Blog – destinationcrmblog.com – a blog from the editors of CRM magazine, dedicated to providing Customer Relationship Management information in a timely manner to connect decision makers and providers.
SpeechTech Blog – speechtechblog.com – updates on speech technology and its applications in daily life. Covers everything from ASR to VUI, with lots of links, threads, and even a few pictures thrown in for good measure.
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Paula Hane's New Chapter
Effective June 1, Paula J. Hane is giving up her assignment as News Bureau Chief at Information Today, Inc. (ITI), where she was engaged to provide editorial direction to the ITI NewsBreaks service hosted on infotoday.com. She also wrote for Information Today and the Cyberskeptic’s Guide to Internet Research. She has been associated with the company for 16½ years and was previously the Editor of Database magazine for Online, Inc. She will continue to accept freelance editorial and writing assignments.
The responsibility for producing news commentaries and in-depth analyses for the infotoday.com website will be integrated into the workflow of the Information Today newspaper, with Barbara Brynko as Editor-in-Chief/Editorial Director. Assisting Barbara will be Brandi Scardilli as Managing Editor.
Vendors should continue to send information industry and product news items to Information Today: Barbara Brynko (Editor-in-Chief/Editorial Director) at bbrynko@infotoday.com. Library technology news should continue to be sent to Computers in Libraries magazine at cilnews@infotoday.com. As always, freelance writers are encouraged to submit story ideas directly to the editors.
We wish Paula success in her new ventures and thank her for her many years of great work as News Bureau Chief at ITI. Paula can be reached at paulajeanhane@gmail.com.
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